Since having first formed back in 1982 Slayer went on to lay the world to waste with their cocktail of metal and punk. Heavier, faster, brutal and certainly darker than the rest, Slayer set the benchmark for all the thrash metal bands that followed in their wake. This month sees the release of Christ Illusion, the band's new studio outing since 2001's God Hates Us All that reunites the classic line-up of Tom Araya (bass, vocals), Kerry King (guitars), Jeff Hanneman (guitars) and Dave Lombardo (drums) that last appeared together on 1990's Seasons In The Abyss. Under the watchful eye of executive producer Rick Rubin working closely with producer Josh Abraham, the album expands further upon the now familiar Slayer themes of God, religion, hate and war. At the tail end of the band's recent jaunt across the U.S as part of The Unholy Alliance Tour, Joe Matera caught up with Kerry King for this exclusive interview for Ultimate Guitar.

Ultimate-Guitar: How did it feel to have the original line-up together again for Christ Illusion?

Kerry King: It was cool, Dave has been playing with us for the better part of four years now so all the newness had gone but we're definitely playing well together. The good thing too is kids, who maybe didn't get to see us ever with Dave have that opportunity again now.

What sort of process did it entail when it came to making the album?

We just made stuff up and Jeff make's things up too a lot more these days. Since it is not quite like it was before as there is more distance between us now when we're home, Jeff is generally done with the song before we ever hear it. And I mean with the drums and everything. I'll make up a song like on a cassette player, the same way I used to 20 years ago, the same old shit really. Then I'll show it to Dave and go from there.

"The good thing is kids, who maybe didn't get to see us ever with Dave Lombardo, have that opportunity again now."

Did you flesh out the songs before going into the studio?

They're as polished as they can be. All the lyrics aren't always done but musically they're pretty much machined.

Slayer's lyrics have always used violent, gore imagery?

I think it's just that when we make up songs we've got to make up songs that for one, is in Slayer's line of work. So generally that means writing songs that nobody else will write. But it's cool I always think that for some reason if I was a director rather than a musician, even though my last name is King, I'd be Stephen King. It is something that I'm into. Like I couldn't wait for The Omen to come out on 6-6-06 because I just wanted to see what they did to it with it and their more modern take on it.

With all the censorship that is happening today, how important do you think it is for a band like Slayer to talk about the subjects that are deemed controversial and politically incorrect?

I think it's real important for bands like us to exist because not everybody wants to hear the bubblegum pop garbage. There is an outlet for somebody playing intense music that will make you go out and see the show. Not only is there a release, but our shows are visuals too. It's a visual assault kind of thing so it is an interesting product if you want to call it that.

How much of your personal philosophy directs Slayer?

I don't really have a life philosophy my thing is just rebelling against pretty much organized religion. That is my main thing because personally I think it's a crutch for people that are too weak to get through life on their own. I'm the kind of guy that says if I don't see it, then it doesn't work. And nobody can show me God.

What was the recording process like for the album?

This is the first time that we never went to tape at all as it was all done on a computer. We always work on the drums first because if your drums aren't happening you can't get a quality song. So you have to get the drum sound and the drum performance. I play along with Dave on every take he does. I play along with him because he needs to know where he's at and where he's at in the song. If he's concentrating on getting the part right, I might do a head cue, you know to switch him from high hat to ride. So I'm not going for my performance, I'm just going for the drum performance. Then once that's done either I do rhythm guitar or bass whichever and then the vocals and leads are left for last.

"I always think that if I was a director rather than a musician, I'd be Stephen King."

You did all the rhythm tracks both yours and Jeff's, on this album?

Yes, I did that on the last two records too. When I play Jeff's part I use his rig and his guitar so it sounds just like him.

How do you go about approaching your guitar solos, are they pre-planned?

I worked out about 80% of them out in advance. There is something Dime told me many years ago around the time of Divine Intervention, I think I told him I was planning all my leads and then putting a lot of volume to them and he said 'King, don't let go of what got you here, you have to just go in them and just wail on some of them'. So I always remembered that and have never forgotten it. So I'll always go in there and make sure I wing it on a couple of the songs.

When it comes to guitar parts, how do you and Jeff decides who plays what and where?

The funny thing is there is nothing like 'I need more leads than you' or 'I have to have the same amount of leads as you'. It's just if somebody is working on the leads that they know they're going to do and they've run out of leads to do then we'll work it out. Like Jeff came to me this time and said, 'where do I need to play leads on your song?' I said 'play here and here'. Then once we started winding them down, I picked the ones that I knew I wanted to do and gave Jeff the ones that needed a different touch to them so that he had some that he wanted to do so it's very fair. We don't say, 'I have to play this one'. If Jeff wants one, I just give it to him and if I want one of his, then that's mine.

What was your main guitar sound for the album?

It was a Marshall JCM 800, the same heads that I've been using forever and an old Boss 10-band Equalizer that I've also used forever too. Basically it's the same sound I'd imagine since at least Seasons In The Abyss, but just different levels of EQ and stuff. I used all B.C. Rich guitars. I used a couple of B.C.Rich Vs because I wanted to have different tunings and some guitars sound better tuned one way than another. Those guitars were married to that tuning for the entire record. I had a couple of Warlocks too and for the intro to The Final Six, which isn't on the album, I used a 10-string Bitch.

Why wasn't that track included on final track listing of the album?

Because Tom took off one weekend for vacation and he was going to come back Monday to sing it but that was when he got that gall bladder surgery. It's probably going to come out as part of a special Digipack for the holidays, like it will be added to the album as a bonus track.

"It's real important for bands like us to exist because not everybody wants to hear the bubblegum pop garbage."

Going back to guitars, what did Jeff use?

Basically he uses the same heads as mine though he's got a different EQ parameter than I do but that is because he uses different guitars, which were mainly ESPs.

You specifically favour neck-thru guitars, am I correct?

Yes it's the only type of guitars I play in the studio and on the stage.

Didn't you play ESP guitars for a short time at one stage?

Yeah I started on B.C.Rich guitars but the owner then sold the company to a guy that couldn't make the quality I was accustomed to so I went to ESP. Then when the Rico family got it back [B.C.Rich] I went back to them.

So how many B.C Richs do you own?

I say 20 or less because for me it's not about the craftsmanship of the guitar. I'm a true believer in that it is the chunk of wood that makes or breaks the sound and some of them just don't sound as good as others. So if I have a guitar made and I play it on a tour and it's not one of my favourites, it'll usually end up in a Hard Rock caf? somewhere. I'm really proud of the job my painter does on my guitars though, as I like to show them off. I only have about eight with me out on the road right now but I'm playing like only five of them live. Slayer tends to run songs together so every time there is a break in the action, I'll switch guitars just to make sure I'm in tune.

Have you ever had the misfortune of having any of your guitars break down live?

Not with guitars, it's mostly with wireless packs and other radios. This is because in the buildings we play, sometimes the frequencies don't like a particularly building and when that happens I change to a hard wire. I don't have any problems going back to hard wire. But a lot of times guys will say 'I can't go back to hard wire as it just ties me down'. I'm like, well it's more important to sound good because the kids have spent money to hear a good performance and if my guitar wireless pack keeps cutting out, they're getting shit.

How do you feel about Slayer being recently voted by MTV as one of the top 10 heavy metal bands of all time?

I think that's awesome, I'm not a big fan of MTV and I think they suck but that's cool.

Going back to the early days of Slayer, you actually played the very first- five - live shows Megadeth ever played with Dave Mustaine in 1984. What was that experience like for you?

I thought it was inspiring that Dave thought I was good enough to play with him because at that point, I was quite a fan because I had seen him play with Metallica before he got booted from the band. And because he played B.C. Rich guitars too, that was how it all came together. Somebody at B.C. Rich said that Dave was wondering whether if I was interested in playing with him and I thought it was cool to get a chance to play with somebody whom, I thought was that good. I went out and did the shows and then it was time to go back to my band as we were working on the Hell Awaits album. I don't think Dave was too happy about that. (laughs) I could see myself, looking back now if I for reason had decided to stay with Megadeth, that I probably would have left after two or three years because number one, the guy isn't the nicest guy and number two, I think he would have tried to be too commercial and I don't care for that.

"Every time there is a break in the action, I'll switch guitars just to make sure I'm in tune."

Reign In Blood was really the first album that solidified Slayer's unique sound, obviously a major part of this is largely due to producer Rick Rubin?

Absolutely, he took out all the reverb and everything and made it more where it hit you right between the eyes. Once we realized that we didn't need reverb, and our sound was a lot more threatening without it, we just kept it and it was done.

Speaking of Rubin he's credited as executive producer on Christ Illusions, how much input did he have into the album?

I never saw him in the studio. The only thing he did on this record was have suggestions at mix time.

Though the fast and furious sound of Slayer has been constant throughout its career, South Of Heaven was a slight departure where you slowed the pace down, yet didn't sacrifice any of the heaviness inherent in Slayer's music.

That was the only record we've ever done with an idea of what we wanted to do before we even wrote a note of it. We'd been playing fast and doing the gigs which were pretty much all fast playing too and because we were getting more popular we needed to number one, material to offset all the speed from Reign In Blood and number two, to keep people guessing.

I agree with Kerry 100 percent about religion being a crutch for weak people who cant get through life on there own.it is absolute sanity by consensus,seriously ,omnipotent invisible sky fairies that always need you to help them out with a couple dollars,get real

I think show no mercy, south of heaven and season of the abyss are way better albums than reign in blood. The music was good in reign in blood but I think arraya ruined it with his screaming vocals cause it ruins the music and it was just too fast paced if that's possible. Like playing fast isn't everything. Black Sabbath is the best metal band ever and they play really slow, but it's heavy as hell.

Kerry King?? why?? Jeff is the real player here sure they share guitar parts but jeff is the best of the two and does more for the band. Sure kerry kicks ass but jeff is in kerry's shadows and needs to be in these articles

lousy vocals throughout the entirety of thier career, the reason Black Sabbath is so much heavier while being so much slower is quality vocals by Ozzy and Dio that are actually sang in key with the backing music. Slayer is just one of the first growling grunting screaming yelling bands that all end up sucking b/c of the vomiting vocals.

He sounds like a rebel without a cause, TBH, with his lines about God, MTV, whatever...he obviously hates the establishment, but doesn't really seem to offer a better alternative, or really develop his hatred for religion or establishment beyond blind disgust.

recliner33 wrote:
dimebag7 wrote:
cant wait!
mustaine is a *****.
I'd say kerry king is worse than mustaine, but musically I like them both. They both can come off as pricks at times but in this interview, I think king did well. I enjoyed reading it and this is the best interview i've seen UG do. I also agrred with king on alot of the things about religion and how mtv sucks, lol.
HmTownHero1007 wrote:
slayer should do a cover of puff the magic dragon
That would be insane.

Jamster10 wrote:
I am a guitarist and I have played and listened to slayer since I was a teen and used to respect and aprreciate their music I used to think it had something magical and uniuqe to it's mezmorizing sounds and lycs, but as I grew and matured in mind body and soul I realized it really has nothing to spiritualy offer except hopelessness, confusion and misleading ideas of what's to come in the after life, it's like the blind leading the blind right into judgment, their like children playing with fire not understanding the consequences to thier actions what happens on the day that they change their hearts about life and God, what then ? they will be saved from judgment as anyone else who calls on the name of the lord but their message will be out there for all to consume still, and for those who don't think this has to do with religion, you are the ones I am in refernce to, think about it please, Slayer's music is focused on religion, they speak of God as often as a preacher, only they are against God for whatever reason they might have as many people do, and they often speak of satan as if they actualy might beleive in him as though they have seen him perform miracles in their life and one day decided I,m going to follow him and preach in his name for the mere fact that they haven't seen God,and thus have a reason to hate him or be angry against him, I challenge you Slayer as much as you would like for people to pick up your album and read the lyrics and believe your ideas to pick up a bible and read what Jesus Christ has to say before bashing and crucifying him by your works he will forgive you as he has anyone else who ask for forgiveness, I to was lost but now am found blind but now I see. Slayer you guys rock and are blessed with tramendous talents I look for the day you guys can see who it was that allowed you to have these talents and give thanks to him through your talents.

Thats the perfect example of an English textbook run-on sentence.
Slayer rules.

Im not really a Slayer fan but do appreciate the talent in the band but for Kerry to say: "I'm the kind of guy that says if I don't see it, then it doesn't work. And nobody can show me God." Its sortof ignorant. You dont see air but if your reading this it seems to be working.

You know Tom's Catholic? And still believes in God?
And Jamster, for fuc k sake man that's taking God-loving too far, I'm a protestant Christian and I know better than to ram that fact down people's throats.
PEOPLE - Believe what you want to, but don't force your opinions and beliefs on others. Unless it's against gayness. XD
And Slayer kick ass, what I've heard of their new album kicks ass, and they've got more good albums besides Reign in blood.

Hey morons, Slayer is a satanic band, their theme is killing and blood and shit but it's just an image, I can write about worshiping the devil and drinking blood but it doesn't mean I actually do. Having said that, Slayer came out with one good CD like 20 years ago and I don't this this band even deserves half the attention they get now.

Jamster10 wrote:
I am a guitarist and I have played and listened to slayer since I was a teen and used to respect and aprreciate their music I used to think it had something magical and uniuqe to it's mezmorizing sounds and lycs, but as I grew and matured in mind body and soul I realized it really has nothing to spiritualy offer except hopelessness, confusion and misleading ideas of what's to come in the after life, it's like the blind leading the blind right into judgment, their like children playing with fire not understanding the consequences to thier actions what happens on the day that they change their hearts about life and God, what then ? they will be saved from judgment as anyone else who calls on the name of the lord but their message will be out there for all to consume still, and for those who don't think this has to do with religion, you are the ones I am in refernce to, think about it please, Slayer's music is focused on religion, they speak of God as often as a preacher, only they are against God for whatever reason they might have as many people do, and they often speak of satan as if they actualy might beleive in him as though they have seen him perform miracles in their life and one day decided I,m going to follow him and preach in his name for the mere fact that they haven't seen God,and thus have a reason to hate him or be angry against him, I challenge you Slayer as much as you would like for people to pick up your album and read the lyrics and believe your ideas to pick up a bible and read what Jesus Christ has to say before bashing and crucifying him by your works he will forgive you as he has anyone else who ask for forgiveness, I to was lost but now am found blind but now I see. Slayer you guys rock and are blessed with tramendous talents I look for the day you guys can see who it was that allowed you to have these talents and give thanks to him through your talents.

You know Tom's catholic, right? I wouldn't be surprised if Dave and Jeff were too. They're just putting on a show and trying to get a rise out of people like you, and apparently it's working.

CustomCustom wrote:
lousy vocals throughout the entirety of thier career, the reason Black Sabbath is so much heavier while being so much slower is quality vocals by Ozzy and Dio that are actually sang in key with the backing music. Slayer is just one of the first growling grunting screaming yelling bands that all end up sucking b/c of the vomiting vocals.

Slowness or playing fast or screaming has nothing to do with heaviness in my opinion. But yeah that said, I do think black sabbath is the heaviest band of all time and I don't think it's mainly because of Ozzy or Dio, it's because of Iommi's heavy and simple riffs that stay implanted in your brain forever and ward and geezer's drum and bass playing to go along with it. Like Tony Iommi should be the guy credited to most of sabbath's heaviness, but all the members in the band add to it though.

I've been listening to the new album for the better part of a month now and all I can give it is that it kind of reminds me of Reign in Blood. Other than that...no big deal, kinda' boring. Going "back to your roots" as a musician isn't always a good thing after 20 years, especially after trying so many diifferent things on the last few albums. Might mean they realized it didn't sit well with fans or they just plain ran out of ideas and went back to what they did on their most popular record. I liked the recent material but it just never sat right that King was always about "Rap sucks, pop sucks, KORN,Static-X and Nu-Metal all suck,..." Then started using dropped tunings and "NU-Metal" riffs (Diabolos in Musica), played with SUM 41 and toured with Static-X. That's cool just don't chalk it up to "cuz' that's what I wanted to do at the time..." when it don't work.

Dimebag Dave wrote:
Jamster10 wrote:
I am a guitarist and I have played and listened to slayer since I was a teen and used to respect and aprreciate their music I used to think it had something magical and uniuqe to it's mezmorizing sounds and lycs, but as I grew and matured in mind body and soul I realized it really has nothing to spiritualy offer except hopelessness, confusion and misleading ideas of what's to come in the after life, it's like the blind leading the blind right into judgment, their like children playing with fire not understanding the consequences to thier actions what happens on the day that they change their hearts about life and God, what then ? they will be saved from judgment as anyone else who calls on the name of the lord but their message will be out there for all to consume still, and for those who don't think this has to do with religion, you are the ones I am in refernce to, think about it please, Slayer's music is focused on religion, they speak of God as often as a preacher, only they are against God for whatever reason they might have as many people do, and they often speak of satan as if they actualy might beleive in him as though they have seen him perform miracles in their life and one day decided I,m going to follow him and preach in his name for the mere fact that they haven't seen God,and thus have a reason to hate him or be angry against him, I challenge you Slayer as much as you would like for people to pick up your album and read the lyrics and believe your ideas to pick up a bible and read what Jesus Christ has to say before bashing and crucifying him by your works he will forgive you as he has anyone else who ask for forgiveness, I to was lost but now am found blind but now I see. Slayer you guys rock and are blessed with tramendous talents I look for the day you guys can see who it was that allowed you to have these talents and give thanks to him through your talents.
Thats the perfect example of an English textbook run-on sentence.
Slayer rules.

I give Slayer all the respect they deserve for being a hard hitting metal band for 20 plus years. Kerry King is pretty much an arrogant, narrow minded fool. He talks about how all these new bands are'nt "breaking any new ground" when they've been talking about the same subject matter and using the same guitar tones for 20 years. The New album does not sound like anything NEW at all. These songs sound "old". The album is pretty boring because they are'nt doing anything unexpected or challenging themselves to do anything different. How many times do we have to hear him say how great Slayer is and nobody writes songs like them? They have'nt written a really great song since the song "Seasons in the Abyss" and how long ago did that come out? Exactly!

Zigthedevil :
what a dickhole... after 24years... they're still writing songs about hating christ. how childish? aren't they suppose to be mature like adults. i hate slayer see this and think about how stupid they are. of course you cant see God thats why they're call God, you *****.
....what?

what a dickhole... after 24years... they're still writing songs about hating christ. how childish? aren't they suppose to be mature like adults. i hate slayer see this and think about how stupid they are. of course you cant see God thats why they're call God, you *****.

"I think it's real important for bands like us to exist because not everybody wants to hear the bubblegum pop garbage..."
Who was it that played lead on that SUM 41 album again? Dave Mustaine? no... Kirk Hammett? no that's not it, hmmm...

As I was saying, heaviness is loud and distorted guitar and bass riffs along with hard hitting in your face drum playing to go along with singing that compliments the music and not so high pitched. I do think slayer is one of the heaviest bands out there, but nothing compared to sabbath. It's lombardo's drum playing and Hannanen's and Kerry's riffs that make the band heavy. I don't think they are heavy just because they play fast or that arraya grunts or screams or that they have lyrics that are dark and about satan and stuff. Heaviness is more than that.

Also when I was saying that king is narrow minded and stuff I wasn't talking about his lyrics or about his music. I was talking about him being narrow minded in the interview and stuff and from all the other interviews I heard with him in them.

tsipis77 wrote:
Ok, I'll agree that alot of metalheads are dumb ****s but not all of them, alot of them are smart. I wouldn't say that king is a dumb **** but he is kinda narrow minded and isn't open to other people views. King could also probably play a sears guitar better than you or most people and if there wasn't a whammy bar on it then he could put one on it you dumb ****, just screw the ****er in. But if the wah peddle wasn't invented then he might be screwed for solo's and stuff.
dude, the POINT of music is to express YOUR ideas in a cool way. he can be as narrow minded as he wants. METAL UP YOUR ASS!

The point of music for me is to listen to it. I don't listen to music to hear other peoples ideas, i listen to it if it's good music. I don't care if a slayer song is about satan and christ or about kings shiny red bicycle or his little dalmation puppy, I just care about the music, plus you don't know what arraya is singing about half the time because of his screaming.

Gregray88 wrote:
yea, slayer, pretty good...it will never happen but it wuld be ewkl if they wrote a slow song...

A slow but heavy song, but they did some of those in south of heaven. If you mean a power ballad or something when you mean slow song then it would probably sound horrible.

Ok, I'll agree that alot of metalheads are dumb ****s but not all of them, alot of them are smart. I wouldn't say that king is a dumb **** but he is kinda narrow minded and isn't open to other people views. King could also probably play a sears guitar better than you or most people and if there wasn't a whammy bar on it then he could put one on it you dumb ****, just screw the ****er in. But if the wah peddle wasn't invented then he might be screwed for solo's and stuff.
dude, the POINT of music is to express YOUR ideas in a cool way. he can be as narrow minded as he wants. METAL UP YOUR ASS!

Jamster10 wrote:
I am a guitarist and I have played and listened to slayer since I was a teen and used to respect and aprreciate their music I used to think it had something magical and uniuqe to it's mezmorizing sounds and lycs, but as I grew and matured in mind body and soul I realized it really has nothing to spiritualy offer except hopelessness, confusion and misleading ideas of what's to come in the after life, it's like the blind leading the blind right into judgment, their like children playing with fire not understanding the consequences to thier actions what happens on the day that they change their hearts about life and God, what then ? they will be saved from judgment as anyone else who calls on the name of the lord but their message will be out there for all to consume still, and for those who don't think this has to do with religion, you are the ones I am in refernce to, think about it please, Slayer's music is focused on religion, they speak of God as often as a preacher, only they are against God for whatever reason they might have as many people do, and they often speak of satan as if they actualy might beleive in him as though they have seen him perform miracles in their life and one day decided I,m going to follow him and preach in his name for the mere fact that they haven't seen God,and thus have a reason to hate him or be angry against him, I challenge you Slayer as much as you would like for people to pick up your album and read the lyrics and believe your ideas to pick up a bible and read what Jesus Christ has to say before bashing and crucifying him by your works he will forgive you as he has anyone else who ask for forgiveness, I to was lost but now am found blind but now I see. Slayer you guys rock and are blessed with tramendous talents I look for the day you guys can see who it was that allowed you to have these talents and give thanks to him through your talents.

I am a guitarist and I have played and listened to slayer since I was a teen and used to respect and aprreciate their music I used to think it had something magical and uniuqe to it's mezmorizing sounds and lycs, but as I grew and matured in mind body and soul I realized it really has nothing to spiritualy offer except hopelessness, confusion and misleading ideas of what's to come in the after life, it's like the blind leading the blind right into judgment, their like children playing with fire not understanding the consequences to thier actions what happens on the day that they change their hearts about life and God, what then ? they will be saved from judgment as anyone else who calls on the name of the lord but their message will be out there for all to consume still, and for those who don't think this has to do with religion, you are the ones I am in refernce to, think about it please, Slayer's music is focused on religion, they speak of God as often as a preacher, only they are against God for whatever reason they might have as many people do, and they often speak of satan as if they actualy might beleive in him as though they have seen him perform miracles in their life and one day decided I,m going to follow him and preach in his name for the mere fact that they haven't seen God,and thus have a reason to hate him or be angry against him, I challenge you Slayer as much as you would like for people to pick up your album and read the lyrics and believe your ideas to pick up a bible and read what Jesus Christ has to say before bashing and crucifying him by your works he will forgive you as he has anyone else who ask for forgiveness, I to was lost but now am found blind but now I see. Slayer you guys rock and are blessed with tramendous talents I look for the day you guys can see who it was that allowed you to have these talents and give thanks to him through your talents.